21, no. 3 (Spring 1990): Back Matter
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Back Matter Spring 1990
Wofford College Receives a $5.5 Million Building Grant
A $5.5 million academic hall financed by a grant from the F. W. Olin Foundation of New York City will be built by Wofford College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Construction is scheduled to begin in 1990 and to conclude in fall 1991. The foundation made the decision to fund Wofford's proposed construction plans after a five-year survey of the college's academic achievements, financial progress, and long-range planning. “Our intention in giving grants is to give more than buildings,” says the foundation president, Lawrence W. Milas. “The F. W. Olin Foundation rewards demonstrated educational strength and acts as a catalyst for institutional vision.”
The new academic hall will allow the college's faculty to be increased by one-third. “Adding 20 faculty positions will make dramatic differences for the students,” comments Academic Dean Dan Maultsby. “Professors will be able to devote more attention to developing individual students' skills in writing, speaking, independent study, research and computation.” The Wofford campus newspaper reports that the F. W. Olin building's state-of-the-art computer center will be the “hub of a campus-wide technology network linking almost all classrooms, offices and residence hall rooms with computer, video and library sources. A hundred-seat teaching theater will offer facilities for film, video and other on-screen presentations, public speaking, and foreign language interpretation exercises.” Susan Griswold, chair of the Department of Foreign Languages at Wofford, writes, “With lots more tricks in our deck now than just the old disembodied voices of audiotape, we are learning to use technology to make foreign languages real and dynamic for our students, to break down the isolationism of U.S. culture. Such capabilities are especially important for those of us ‘in the provinces,’ out of immediate reach of the rich and persuasive ‘real life’ language resources of metropolitan areas in the U.S. My students no longer think that Spanish is something I invented to torture them with. I believe we are moving toward a time when a monolingual college graduate will be an unthinkable creature.”
Over 62,000 Students from the United States Studied Abroad in 1987–88
In 1987–88 a total of 62,342 students from the United States received academic credit for study abroad, according to a survey by the Institute of International Education. This figure represents an increase of 13,858 (29%) since the IIE conducted its first survey in 1985–86. The report provides support for the widespread impression that study abroad is burgeoning, although the IIE points out that a portion of the increase reflects a broader response to the later survey. Europe continued to attract the largest proportion of students-75%. This percentage decreased from the 80% reported in the previous survey, while the percentages increased slightly for students receiving credit for study in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Women greatly outnumbered men among the nation's study-abroad population: nearly two-thirds were female. Four of the five countries most frequently chosen as destinations by students from the United States are in Western Europe: the United Kingdom (29%), France (12%), Spain (8%), and Italy (8%). The fifth-ranked country was Mexico (5%). The remaining nations in the top ten were West Germany, Israel, Austria, Japan, and China. Almost half the American students studying abroad were in liberal arts, foreign languages, or social studies, while 11% were in business and management. Only 5% chose engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, or physical and life sciences. This pattern of specialization was in complete contrast to that of foreign students in the United States, 40% of whom were studying engineering or business and management.
IIE president Richard M. Krasno comments in the report that “strong educational relationships with Europe are especially important as 1992 approaches. Europeans are placing a new emphasis on educational exchange, through initiatives such as ERASMUS, which promotes international student movements that bring a new kind of integration to the European community. ERASMUS will fund tens of thousands of university students to learn other European languages and study in EC countries other than their own. It is intended to create a large group of young professionals who can function in the new reality of an integrated Europe.”
© 1990 by the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages. All Rights Reserved.
ADFL Bulletin 21, no. 3 (Spring 1990): Back Matter |
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